Inmate Wilton Anderson was taken to University Hospital for treatment after he was stabbed 14 times in a cell on the fourth floor of the House of Detention just after midnight on Dec. 28. Anderson refused to cooperate with an investigation into the incident, telling an internal-affairs deputy, “I am not a snitch,” according to the deputy’s report on the incident.

An inmate and a guard suffered injuries in two separate incidents in December at the Orleans Parish Prison's House of Detention, left. Photo by Matt Davis

In the second incident, inmate Edwin Lee “defeated the locking mechanism of his cell” on the 10th floor of the House of Detention, according to a report written by Sgt. J. Tyler of Gusman’s office.

Sheriff’s Deputy Gary Bennett approached Lee, and tried to take him back to his cell, but Lee grabbed “a nearby broomstick, broke it in half, and used a length of the stick to strike Deputy Bennett in the left face area,” Tyler wrote.

Bennett received a chipped tooth and a possible fractured jaw as a result of the incident; another deputy who restrained Lee suffered a possible sprained wrist.

Lee was booked with charges of aggravated battery, battery of a correctional employee, and simple escape.

An advocate for better security at the jail says the incidents are the result of ongoing understaffing and poor conditions.

“These things could not happen if enough people were on the job, supervising, and paying attention,” said Marjorie Esman, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana. “Both incidents show that the inmates were unsupervised for long enough for these things to happen, which reflects the ongoing security problems at the jail.”

Is it a problem of not enough staff or too many prisoners? How many of these prisoners are really violent as opposed to non-violent drug offenders and such? Paying more workers means taking money out of other programs, some of which might help reduce violent crime to begin with.